Abstract
This investigation is a longitudinal study of how hearing-impaired infants, ages three to five, use communication repair strategies in conversational situations. The subjects consisted of six hearing-impaired infants in a preschool for deaf children. For each subject, data was collected from their group interaction with their preschool teacher and their hearing-impaired peers. The results indicated that three-year-old infants used no repair strategy, but that four-year-old infants began to use some repair strategies. Five-year-old infants frequently used a great variety of repair strategies. There was a significant correlation between the frequency of their use of repair strategies and their level of social maturity (particularly communication ability). A developmental model of repair strategy use was also proposed.
